The Argentine government has temporarily abolished high export duties on grain, soybeans, and soybean products, which previously ranged from 25% to 31%, until October 31, 2025, according to GrainTrade. The move is aimed at increasing foreign exchange earnings and stabilizing the national currency amid the economic crisis.
The political context of the decision is linked to the defeat of President Javier Milei’s party in local elections in the province of Buenos Aires. This has heightened investor doubts about the government’s stability and caused the peso to devalue. The central bank has spent more than $1.1 billion of its reserves over the past three days to support the currency market. In total, Argentina has already used $20 billion in funding from the IMF this year.
The abolition of tariffs will sharply increase the supply of soybeans, soybean meal, and oil on the global market. On September 22, November soybean futures in Chicago fell by 1.5% to $371.1/t, and over the week, the decline was 3.3%.
Experts predict further pressure on prices, especially if trade negotiations between the US and China stall.
China, which diversified its imports after the trade war with the US, increased its purchases of Argentine soybeans to a six-year high of 8.81 million tons last year. This reduced domestic processing: in July, about 31% of enterprises were idle, and now the figure is even higher, according to the CIARA-CEC exporters’ association.
For Ukraine, Argentina’s decision means:
increased competition in key markets in Europe and Southeast Asia;
lower export prices for soybeans and soybean products;
pressure on domestic prices from processors due to cheaper soybean meal and oil from Latin America.
The Verkhovna Rada adopted at the final reading bill on amendments to Section II Final and Transitional Provisions of the Law of Ukraine on amendments to certain laws of Ukraine concerning reducing the shortage of ferrous scrap on the domestic market, which is proposed to prolong the export duty in the amount of EUR 58 per tonne for another five years.
Some 291 MPs backed the bill at a parliamentary session on Tuesday.
One of the authors of bill No. 5175, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Economic Development Dmytro Kysylevsky, in his Facebook post, expressed his satisfaction with the adoption of the bill.
At the same time, he recalled that the duty was first introduced in 2016 to moderate the export of scarce raw materials from Ukraine. The metallurgical industry, which provides 10% of the national GDP, 35% of merchandise exports and 200,000 jobs, cannot work without it. After all, there is no technology that allows getting steel without using scrap metal.
“As the deputy head of the parliamentary committee for economic development, I understand that only the export of products with high added value will allow us to become a strong and rich country. In this case, 1 tonne of exported scrap gives Ukraine a little less than UAH 2,000 (this is the payment of the EUR 58 duty), while 1 tonne of the same scrap processed into finished steel products at Ukrainian steel plants brings about UAH 8,000 in taxes. That is, it is four times more profitable for the state to process scrap into metal and then into finished products than to export raw materials,” the parliamentarian said.
According to him, in this case there is no question of choice: to export raw materials or processed products with added value. At the same time, he said that if the initiative to extend the duty did not receive the necessary support from MPs, then 21,000 jobs and about UAH 1 billion of taxes per year would be lost for the Ukrainian state.
“And, of course, we need to think about the future. The EU Green Deal further increases the value of scrap as a raw material for metallurgy: its use in electric arc furnaces reduces CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional technologies of steel production in converters and open-hearth furnaces. And since Ukraine undertakes to reduce CO2 emissions, it is necessary to take care of the resources for this, as other countries are already doing,” Kysylevsky said, adding that the European metallurgical association Eurofer generally demands to ban the export of scrap metal from the EU, taking into account the EU Green Deal.
“At the same time, I want to reassure the skeptics: the bill does not contradict our international obligations. This is a temporary measure that is not discriminatory. It complies with the WTO law on security exceptions: we have a war, a chronic trade deficit, Crimea is annexed. International partners understand this. Therefore, no claims were made against Ukraine during the period of the duty since 2016. And now official Kyiv has a confident negotiating position in the WTO,” the MP said.
The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship has supported the new “metallurgical law” initiated by the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, which proposes raising the current export duty on scrap metal from EUR 42 per tonne to EUR 54 per tonne for three years. According to a press release of the parliamentary committee, citing its chairman Viktor Halasiuk, this bill, due to the increase in export duties, will eliminate the shortage of raw materials for steel mills and keep jobs for Ukrainians.
At the same time, it is noted that starting from 2016, thanks to the adopted laws on increasing and extending the export duty on scrap metal from EUR 10/tonne to EUR 30/tonne, and then to EUR 42/tonne, positive trends are observed in Ukraine in the provision of metallurgical plants with these raw materials. For the third year in a row, the volume of domestic scrap metal supplies has been growing, the scrap metal deficit decreased from 850,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes. Today, this resource provides 98% of the needs of the metallurgical industry.
